Request for Practices from Prison

My very dear Cameron,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. I am extremely happy that you opened your heart. By being in prison you have been able to open your heart to Buddhism, so this makes your life most beneficial for all sentient beings and, by the way, you free yourself from samsara, and achieve great liberation and enlightenment.

I accept what you requested – to be your guru. If you have the book Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand by Pabongka Rinpoche, please read the section on guru devotion.

Keep this as the object of your life – train your mind in guru devotion – until you have stable realizations, until you see all the buddhas as the guru and all the gurus as the Buddha. This should be stable in your life, not just for days, but for months and years. Then train your mind in renunciation, bodhicitta, and emptiness in the same way.

Later, you can receive tantric initiations, read the commentaries, and do the retreat on your deity. According to my observation, your main deities are Secret Vajrapani, Kalachakra, and Hevajra. From these three, you can see which one you feel closer to, or you can ask for some indication in your dreams. Before you go to bed, make strong prayers to Tara to show you which deity you should practice for your quickest enlightenment, so that you can enlighten sentient beings quickest.

Then, also according to my observations, it comes out best for you to do 16 nyung näs. There are some books on this practice. Of course, it is not so easy to do while you are in prison, but try. Just fit the session in however you can, according to your convenience. You can discuss with Ven. Robina how to do it in a flexible way.

You should take the Eight Mahayana Precepts six times a month. This makes your life most meaningful, you create so much merit, and if you take each precept with the mind of bodhicitta, then it causes happiness for all sentient beings and ultimately causes enlightenment for all sentient beings. By taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts, it causes you to have a good rebirth in your next life and is the best preparation for your happiness, not only a good rebirth after death but all the way up to enlightenment. Taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts creates the cause to be free from samsara.

I am also attaching some instructions I have given on how to meditate on the lamrim and preliminaries, so please read those.

Please meditate for eight months on the Lower Path, eight months on the Middle Path, nine months on bodhicitta, and two months on emptiness. This means that you mainly focus on these subjects each day for that many months. Then, when you have finished, start again from the beginning until you have stable realizations.

Before taking the Eight Mahayana Precepts, you need to receive the lineage. You can get that from Ven. Robina. You can contact and ask her. Once you have received it one time, then you can take the Precepts from your altar.

Please live your life with a bodhicitta motivation toward others. This is the purpose of your life – to benefit sentient beings.

With much love and prayers...